


Priorities

by auchterlonie



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Episode Related, Gen, Phil and his team, Phil and the kids, Phil planning and prioritizing, Protective Phil, Turn Turn Turn, night on the Bus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-11
Updated: 2014-04-11
Packaged: 2018-01-19 00:38:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1448845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/auchterlonie/pseuds/auchterlonie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post Turn, Turn, Turn, Phil returns to the Bus and thinks through what needs to happen next...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Priorities

**Author's Note:**

> Just a quick a scene that I have firmly in my head of protective Phil watching over his team.
> 
> Spoilers for Turn, Turn, Turn and also for Captain America 2: the Winter Soldier

Phil came back to the Bus, his mind still buzzing with plans and strategy. He had so many questions and the last few hours worth of interrogations and searches had done nothing but spawn more.  
  
With Hand at the Fridge, he was the highest ranking officer at the Hub. In the old days, that would have been an advantage. He would have been able to give the orders and see them carried out, leaving him to the take in the Big Picture. But now... he couldn't trust those underneath him to carry out those orders, nor could he trust the intel he received from them. The Big Picture was too big for him to handle right now. He needed to compartmentalize, prioritize, do the work himself.  
  
As he settled into his office and allowed himself his first break in hours, he realized he was absentmindedly flicking the tiny blade of the Captain America pocket knife he always carried.  
  
 _Where are you, Cap? There is still so much work to be done._  
  
Ever the pragmatist, though, Phil dismissed the thoughts as soon as he had them. The Captain had done his job and brought down three helicarriers - _three_ \- and so the rest of the work fell to Phil. He was the one who needed to rebuild SHIELD and protect the people who still believed.  
  
Like those on his team.  
  
Garrett had tried to take Fitz and given the chance, he would have grabbed Simmons and Skye as well. Hydra was first and foremost an organization that craved the kind of power superior technology afforded them and so the Old Guard agents like Phil and May would be targeted for elimination; they were nothing but impediments. These kids, though - these young geniuses and the others like them  
  
 _...oh God, the Academy..._  
  
were the prize every bit as desired as the Teseract had been. They would be hunted. They would be caught. They would be used. Hydra would never stop until they had tortured the last bit of innocence from them.  
  
Phil pulled up his screen and checked the Bus' scanners looking for heat signatures. It was late, he knew, but the Bus had been so quiet when he'd walked in that now, suddenly, he needed to know the kids were safe in their beds. The readings surprised him, though. They showed a figure in Avionics - May sill working on the cleanup - and another in the guest bunk - Triplett. The other three, though, were prone in the SUV.  
  
His heart stopped for half a second as he suddenly panicked. He'd been betrayed again; the kids executed and left for him to find... but then one of the figures rolled over. The smallest of the group. Fitz.  
  
They were sleeping. Together. In the car.  
  
It only made sense once Phil stopped to think. The SUV was Skye's safe place. When she'd first come on board and had trouble adapting, she'd taken to sleeping in that SUV. It had been familiar and comforting to her, like her van and old life. After a day like today when the tiny bunk she'd just started to consider home had been shot to pieces - violated - it made sense she'd seek out that old sense of safety.  
  
Fitz and Simmons must have needed that same sense of safety. They'd faced torture and execution today and had handled it admirably, especially for SciTech agents. Hell, Phil knew field operatives who had had failed those same situations and were now being fitted for coffins. He had never felt so proud.

Or so protective.  
  
He didn't know what SHIELD was any more or if it was worth fighting for, but he knew these three and he knew he'd give his life to protect them. He'd be with them to the end of the line. So, he got up and quietly moved downstairs into Cargo, pulled his gun, and sat in the fold-out chair closest to the SUV. He settled himself for the rest of the night and re-prioritized.  
  
Hydra would never so much as disturb their sleep, not while he still drew breath. He would see these three safe into tomorrow and all the other tomorrows he could give them.


End file.
